How do you choose the right rice cooker to last a lifetime? You'll need to pinpoint your personal cooking habits and preferences.
Firstly, understand how many cups of rice - the standardized cup that comes with rice cookers - you will cook on a daily basis, not on occasions when you have guests over (more on that later). This is important because rice cookers come in various sizes. A 3-cup rice cooker is the smallest capacity common for major brands such as Panasonic, Tiger, and Zojirushi to carry. The next common size up is a 5-cup and the biggest size (for household use) is 10 cups. For some brands, there are 4-cups and 8-cups available. Each cup of raw rice will yield two bowls of cooked rice:
5-cup rice cooker = yields up to 10-bowls of cooked rice
10-cup rice cooker = yields up to 20-bowls of cooked rice.
So here's our first tip. If you only cook about 1-2 cups of rice daily, a 3-cup rice cooker would be the most suitable size for you. If you cook around 2-5 cups of rice, a 5-cup cooker would be most suitable. And finally, if you cook any more than 5 cups, then a 10-cup cooker would be most suitable.
A common concern that we often hear in the store is, "what if we have guests over"? If you have guests over and you frequently have guests over, consider buying a slightly larger capacity rice cooker. Why shouldn't you buy a larger rice cooker which is much larger (ex. 10-cup) for when you have guests over? Well, you could buy a much larger rice cooker, but because you would not cook that much daily, it would damage the inner pot of the rice cooker and shorten its lifespan. Furthermore, if you only cook a small amount of rice in a large rice cooker, the heat will not be evenly distributed and the rice will not come out as well.
We can give you more advice on How to Choose Rice Cooker Size, just contact us!
A second cooking practice that you have to be aware of is the kind of rice you usually cook, and the features you need for your rice cooker. There are four kinds of rice cookers: traditional, jar-o-mat, micro-computerized, and induction heated (IH).
All computerized rice cookers come with a timer that allows you to preset a cooking time for when you want your rice to be cooked and ready. Some models will have a count-down timer, so you would enter how many hours you would want to eat your rice. Other models have a built-in clock, and you set what time you want to eat your rice. For example, if you first have the rice and water ready inside your rice cooker, plug it in, and set it to 7:00 pm, the rice cooker will turn on to automatic mode and the rice will be cooked and ready to serve at 7:00 pm. If you work during the day and do not want to wait for the rice cooker when you get home, this feature can save you a lot of time.Contact us to get more news.
Some brands and models of computerized rice cookers also have features for cooking sweet rice, rinse-free rice, sushi rice, and even baking cakes. This brings us to our second tip - if you never cook brown rice, sweet rice, porridge, and don't need a timer, you would probably be happy with a jar-o-mat rice cooker. If you don't cook rice very often and are not picky about the quality of your cooked rice, a traditional rice cooker may suit you. However, if you value special functions and would find a timer useful, then we recommend a micro-computerized or IH rice cooker.
The inner pot of your rice cooker will not just determine the fluffiness and taste of your rice, but also the speed at which your rice will cook. Figure out what you value in inner pot types: Non-stick, stainless steel, and ceramic.
Easy to clean
Uses non-stick coating
Will need replacement upon damage and scratches
Scratch-resistant and dishwasher safe
Difficult to clean as rice sticks to inner pot
Cooking may be uneven
Easy to clean
Non-stick with no coating
Heavy inner pot, breakable material
Do not rinse your rice inside the inner pot of your rice cooker, as this will scratch the pot's non-stick coating.
Do not add ingredients such as oil, salt, or other spices into the rice cooker, as this will also damage the non-stick coating.
Try not to use a rice cooker that is much larger than what you need (ex. using a 10-cup rice cooker to cook only 1-2 cups of rice regularly)
Ensure the heating element under the inner pot is clean and if you have a computerized rice cooker, make sure that the control panel is clean.
Rice cookers are appliances designed to perfectly steam or boil rice.
From pizza to cake, read on for some dishes you might not have known you can make in a rice cooker.
Restaurants depend on our commercial rice cookers for large amounts of perfectly cooked rice or other grains like oatmeal and quinoa.
This rice-centric dessert can be made in a pinch if you have a rice cooker.
You can use your rice cooker to cook quinoa or to cook barley.
You can use a rice cooker to steam large amounts of rice quickly and easily.
10 Litre Cooker Rice Capacity